I’ll be appearing at the LA Comic-Con from October 26-28 at the LA Convention Center, at table G8. Tickets are available here. I’ll be selling lots of cool stuff: stickers, prints, t-shirts, etc… you should come by! It’s gonna be a blast!

I am very happy to announce that "Good Morning California!", the debut EP from my band, The Dark Holidays, will finally be released on Friday, August 12th, 2016!

It will be available at most every digital music hub: iTunes, Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, Google Play, etc... but if you buy it from my BandCamp page, (http://thedarkholidays.bandcamp.com), you'll get a digital lyric book, some cool pics and an extra song

As if the Star Wars news wasn't enough, I woke up to discover that, for some strange reason, an obscure post I put up on my website about my involvement with Sam Raimi's unfinished version Spider-Man 4 totally blew up online today, (have no idea why, but I'll take it):

So, I can finally share that The Sable Corsair was picked as a finalist for the Star Wars Fan Film awards! After all the craziness of the past few months, we can finally share it with you guys! Please do us the honor of taking a few minutes to check out the link at StarWars.com and vote for The Sable Corsair!

http://www.starwars.com/star-wars-fan-film-awards

A huge thank you to everyone who's already voted and helped spread the word, as well as to my partners in crime: my charming and oh-so- handsome co-director, Mr. Nick Finch, my castmates: Alex Lynn Ward, Chris Finch, Jeff Shoemake, America Young and the members of The Route 66 Patrol of the 501st Legion!

Ok boys and girls... here's the deal: J.J Abrams and LucasFilm recently announced a Star Wars Fan Film Contest. Me and mi hermanos, Chris and Nick Finch, thought it represented a great opportunity for us to finally put all our creative eggs in one basket and do a film of our own. The fact that it's Star Wars, and that we're all huge fans, just makes the prospect that much more fun and exciting! It's called "The Sable Corsair", which is the name of the ship in the film. In keeping with the DIY spirit of the original film, we want to use practical effects and real, epic locations, (one of the actual locations used in some of the Star Wars features...), we have a great story and script, really amazing people who have graciously volunteered their time and talent to help, and a wealth of creative talent and hutzpah... what we don't have is- gulp- money. Moolah. Scratch. Sheckles, son- as in we ain't got none.

We're talent rich, but cash poor... but that's where you might just be able to help. We've launched a "GoFundMe' campaign to raise some money in order to pull off this crazy, epic idea. The link's below. Check out the video and some of the production art. Everything and anything helps. If you don't have cash, that's fine; just help us get the word out. Thanks so much for your kind attention. I think I can safely speak for the fabulous Finch brothers when I tell you it means the world to all of us.

I am super excited that I'm going to be opening a virtual storefront soon with the wonderful folks at www.Threadless.com. I've put some of the designs I've gotten together in the 'New Stuff'. I'll post many more over the next few weeks.

Admission is a $10 donation or $5 and a bottle of wine and there will be snacks.

A WORD ABOUT PARKING: If you’ve not been to the Abbot Kinney area in Venice before, it’s full of great restaurants and lots of hipsters with silly mustaches and ironic t-shirts. So parking in this trendy little spot can be a challenge. Not a “climbing Mt. Everest” challenge, but you may have to look around a little bit. Luckily most of the surrounding residential streets DO NOT have permit parking.

It's such a relief to finally have an official home online, (up 'til now I've felt like the internet equivalent of the Island of Misfit toys), and it's been a long time coming.

It's not exactly 'done', (I guess no website ever really is...), but I think that at least most of the heavy lifting is out of the way. Right now, I've got a ton of artwork up, as well as advance tracks from "Good Morning California!", the first EP by my band, Wrongway Saints.

Over the coming days, weeks and months, I'll add a TON of new stuff: pictures, videos, new tracks, new sketches, the location of the secret rebel base... so feel free to come back as often as you like, there will always be something new and interesting to check out.

Two summers ago, I had a rare opportunity to teach at a school on the Big Island of Hawaii. It was so amazing that I could do a whole blog on that trip alone, but for right now, let me share one of my favorite parts of the trip…

The mongoose. Yes. Mongoose. (or, ‘Manakuke’ in the native tongue)

I know what you’re sayin’, “Jeff, what in the flying name of Rosie O’Donnell are mongoose doing on The Big Island of Hawaii?”

I’m so glad you asked.

The way it was explained to me was that, many years ago, (the 1800’s), The Big Island had a bit of a rat problem: rats would come in with merchant ships and stay for the sugar cane. So, someone had the bright idea to import Indian mongoose in order to stem the rat population… sounds reasonable, right?

Sure, if you’re a complete dumbass.

The problem was that no one seemed to realize, (‘til it was far too late), that rats are nocturnal animals and that mongoose hang out in the daytime- so, by definition, THEY’D NEVER SEE EACH OTHER. Not really a great hunter/ prey relationship when the hunter and they prey aren’t ever even awake at the same time. Duh.

So, now, many years later, these adorable, personable and impossibly fast little critters are all over the island; and because they have no natural predators, they’re partyin’ their fuzzy lil’ asses off.

Now, I know that they’re considered a major pest on the island, but being from ‘the mainland’, (and an animal lover), I thought they were just about the coolest things ever. Also, “Rikki Tikki Tavi”, (by the great Rudyard Kipling), is one of my favorite stories. It’s also an all- time favorite cartoon, which just happened to be done by my all- time favorite animator, the incomparable Chuck Jones. (And if you don’t know who that is, you should be ashamed… ashamed, I tell you! If you’ve never read or seen “Rikki Tikki Tavi”, do so. At once.)

During my stay, I had many encounters with these lil’ maniacs, (including a trip to the beach where they actually formed a ‘receiving line’ on the picnic table as we gave them pizza crust…), and they’re just so ridiculous, I would giggle my ass off every time I saw one.